This year’s Values Voters Summit (VVS) will be a shock to all who have claimed that the Christian Right is dead or about to breathe its last. Several thousand registrants are jamming into the Omni Shoreham hotel in Washington, D.C. this weekend for the annual political conference of the Christian Right hosted by, among others, the Family Research Council (FRC) Action, American Family Association (AFA) Action, and the Heritage Foundation. As the movement emerges from a period of transition following the passing, retirement, or semi-retirement of the founding generation of the Christian Right, I see a movement that is is increasingly focused, vibrant and angry.

After registering yesterday evening before this morning’s official opening, I combed through the swag bag issued to conference participants, where I found several magazines brimming with the stuff of which theocratic movements are made. If you were up late last night and following me on Twitter, you would have noticed me tweeting some of the highlights as a conference “preview.” I think that even the most casual reader — maybe especially the most casual reader who is less accustomed to such rhetoric — would be startled and concerned about the surprising sense of urgency expressed and the aggressive political vision of the writers.